Hi Everyone,
I want to introduce you to a dear friend of mine, Troy Smith, who
writes some of the best western fiction you’ll ever lay eyes on. I’ve had the privilege of editing some of Troy’s work, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Not only is Troy a fantastic writer, he’s also a wonderful person, and I’m excited to introduce him to y’all here today at Petticoats and Pistols. He’ll be giving away a copy of CALEB’S PRICE at the end of the day, so be sure and leave a comment along with your contact information!
Now here’s a bit about Troy Smith:
Troy D. Smith was born in the Upper Cumberland region of Tennessee in 1968. He has waxed floors, moved furniture, been a lay preacher, and taught high school and college. He writes in a variety of genres, achieving his earliest successes with westerns. His first published short story appeared in 1995 in Louis L’Amour Western Magazine, and he won the Spur Award in 2001 for the novel Bound for the Promise-Land (being a finalist on two other occasions.) He is currently teaching American history at Tennessee Tech, and serving as president of Western Fictioneers -the first national writing organization devoted exclusively to fiction about the Old West.
Tell us about your current release.
Caleb’s Price is a very serious story –about the longing that echoes in all of us –that is told in a humorous and sometimes bittersweet way. My goal when I started it was to take all the standard themes, even stereotypes, of the western story and give them a surprising twist. The plot is reminiscent of Shane, Pale Rider, and dozens of B Westerns: an orphaned boy named Joey, raised by his aunt and uncle, is befriended by a mysterious stranger while the whole area is caught up in a range war. Romance seems to develop between the stranger, Caleb, and Joey’s sad and lonely, neglected Aunt Sally. But there are major twists. The “evil cattle baron” is not quite what he seems to be, and Joey (as well as the reader) begins to wonder if Caleb really is there to save them, or if he is there to destroy them. Pretty heavy plot. Yet while I was writing it, the characters took on a life of their own –even the villains (and sometimes it’s hard to tell who they really are) –and the story was imbued with a simultaneous mixture of comedy and tragedy. The only way I could explain it is: imagine if Shane had been written by Thomas Berger, the guy who wrote Little Big Man. It’s at the top of my list of favorites among the things I’ve written.
How did you start your writing career?
Totally by accident! I have always told stories, even as a kid, but it never occurred to me to be a professional writer. When I was in my early 20s I had a job buffing floors at K-mart and Wal-mart stores- in those days the stores were closed from 9pm till 9am, and I was locked in there alone for 12 hours to do a 4 or 5 hour job. I filled the empty hours by reading everything I could get my hands on (including a whole lot of westerns.) While I was buffing, my mind wandered to the stories I was reading- how would I do them differently? So for my own entertainment I started writing those stories down. I was on my 3rd or 4th novel before it dawned on me that I could try to get them published. I started taking the writing seriously, reading every how-to book I could find, and developed my craft.
What was your first sale as an author?
A western short story called “Mourning Glory.” It was in the Nov. 1995 issue of Louis L’Amour Western Magazine. I remember looking at that first paycheck -328 bucks –and thinking that, no matter what happened for the rest of my life, nothing could change the fact that I was a professional, published author. The magazine took several more of my stories –but unfortunately it folded not long after that.
Has someone helped or mentored you in your writing career?
From about 1998 to 2003, there were a number of people I met through Western Writers of America and online Western forums who helped me enormously. Robert J. Randisi included me in several anthologies he edited in that time, and was very encouraging. The list is very long, and I’m bound to slip up and leave someone out… but it included Jim Crutchfield, Dale Walker, Peter Brandvold, John Nesbitt, and more. Some of them introduced me to agents or editors, or read my manuscripts. Jory Sherman and Frank Roderus were especially helpful and encouraging when I was at the bottom of the barrel, devastated both emotionally and financially by a bad divorce. One veteran writer, whom I won’t embarrass by naming, sent me a computer and printer when he learned I no longer had such things, and the only repayment he would ever accept was a promise to do the same for another struggling writer someday (I did just that eventually, when I no longer needed that equipment.) I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the people I named above don’t even remember helping me, it was such second nature to them –but I remember, and I always will.
Tell us about a favorite character from a book. How did you develop that character?
My favorite character I have ever created was Lonnie Blake, a supporting character in Bound for the Promise-Land. I wanted my hero, an escaped slave-turned-Union soldier named Alfred Mann, to have two army comrades who could play the roles of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X to his everyman. Blake was the MLK character- tormented by his human frailties, yet saintly in his love. I grew quite attached to him –he was the sort of man I’d like to be.
What do you think makes a good story?
Conflict. You can’t have a story without conflict –not much of a story, anyhow. And the best stories have both inner and outer conflict; something is challenging the character in the outside, physical world, and that is mirrored by some inner challenge that the hero must overcome in order to defeat the physical obstacle. I also believe that the hero must be changed inside somehow, if only a little, at the end of the story or else you (and the reader) have just been passing time.
Where do you research for your books?
I used to do a lot of research in actual libraries, but nowadays it is possible to find even the most obscure items and documents online. Five years ago I spent an entire summer going from archive to archive in Oklahoma and Arkansas; everything I looked at then can now be accessed digitally. Of course, it’s still good to get a feel for the landscape, and you can’t do that in your computer chair looking at j-pegs. A lot of the western stuff I’ve written lately, and most of what I have planned, has been set in Indian Territory (Oklahoma), Arkansas, and Kansas –the area I researched intensely for my history dissertation, so I’m already pretty familiar with it.
Who are your books published with?
A crime novel I am very proud of, and which I hope grows into a series –Cross Road Blues –was published last year by Perfect Crime Books. My whole Western backlist is in the middle of being re-issued in both paper and e-book format by Western Trail Blazer, with new stuff upcoming as well. So far they’ve done four of my western novels, with four more in the chute, as well as several short stories- I hope to be with WTB for a long time to come. Rebecca J. Vickery is a treasure for our genre, and hopping on her WTB bandwagon when it was first rolling out was one of the smarter things I have done.
Do you have any suggestions for beginning writers? If so, what are they? 
Read a lot. Read to gain factual information, to stir your muse, to examine how other people construct plots and characters. If you want to write good prose, in addition to telling good stories, also practice writing and reading poetry- notice meter and rhythm, and imagery.
And stick with it. Be persistent. Most “overnight successes” had been trying for years –and no one had heard of the ones who quit just before their big break came along.
Do you have a Website or Blog?
I sure do. My official website is www.troyduanesmith.com –there’s info there about my books, and some biographical material. I also blog at http://tnwordsmith.blogspot.com –sometimes about writing, or about westerns, pop culture, history or politics (as a historian, I don’t separate history and politics into different compartments, it’s all part of the same beast!)
How about an excerpt from the book you’re giving to some lucky commenter today, Caleb’s Price?
Glad you asked! Here it is.
EXCERPT FROM CALEB’S PRICE:
“You homesteaders are a stubborn breed,” Caleb said.
“We’re not stubborn,” said Burt. “Our dreams are. Some dreams die hard, and others don’t die at all –so long as they have a bit of rich soil to sink into. Surely you can understand that, Caleb. Even you can’t be as hard as you sound. We all have dreams.”
“I manage to sleep pretty sound, myself. If I have any dreams I don’t remember ’em.”
“You’re an unfortunate man, then. A man who never dreams is a sad thing.”
“How about women?” Caleb asked.
“What do you mean?”
“How about women? Do they have dreams?”
Burt laughed. “Not bein’ one myself, it’s hard to say.”
“Have you ever asked one?”
“Asked one what?”
“About her dreams.”
“No, Caleb, I haven’t. What are you gettin’ at?”
“Nothin’ in particular. I was just wonderin’. You bein’ so big on dreams, I just wondered if you ever noticed anybody else’s.”
Burt frowned. “At least I notice my own.”
“What about your wife, Burt? Does she have any dreams?”
“What do you think?”
“I think that if she does, they’re not about land. Or sheep.”
“Perhaps you’d be good enough to tell me what you think my wife dreams about.” Burt’s voice had taken on a rough edge.
“Oh, I don’t know. The sea, maybe.”
Burt laughed again. I think his laugh was beginning to irritate Caleb. It had been irritating me for years.
“So that’s it,” Burt said. “Sally’s been entertainin’ you with those fairy tales of hers. It’s getting’ plain to me that you have no experience with women. If we had stayed in New Bedford she would have dreamed about the West, and complained about never havin’ seen it. That’s just the way women are. They don’t know what they want. They only know that it’s always somethin’ they’ll never have. It’s different with a man, he dreams about somethin’ simple and sets about gettin’ it. Like me. I know exactly what I want.”
“Then your dreams are important enough to risk your family’s lives over.”
“Yes,” Burt said, in a voice that was softer than normal for him. “That’s how great nations are built. I’m only sorry that you don’t understand any of the things I’ve been tellin’ you.”
“I probably understand more than you give me credit for.”
“I was right about you, wasn’t I, Caleb?”
“What do you mean?”
“About what I said earlier. That you’re a wanderer.”
“I’ve never denied it.”
Burt’s face took on a cold expression. “Then I think that it’s only fair I warn you now, Johnson. Don’t try to include my wife in your wanderin’.”
Caleb chuckled. “What on earth brought that on? The last I knew, we were talkin’ about sheep.”
“All that fancy talk about what her dreams are,” Burt said, his tone hot. “They’ll not come true from the likes of you, I’ll warrant.”
Caleb shook his head. “You sure take a lot out of a little polite conversation.”
“Just don’t fawn over my wife, that’s all.”
“I wasn’t fawnin’ over her, I was just tryin’ to make a point. The point being, you’re risking her life over something she doesn’t even want.”
“I’ll be the judge of what my wife wants, not you. Women are like sheep. All they really want is to be directed. Anything else that comes from ’em is just mindless bleating. And besides, it’s none of your bloody business to start with.”
“I can’t argue with that,” Caleb said. “I was just offerin’ some friendly advice, that’s all.”
“Save your advice for the polar bears. The way you talk, I’d almost believe Ike Majors sent you here as a spy.”
Caleb stared at him for a moment, silent, then said, “If Ike Majors had sent me here, somebody would be usin’ this little wagon as a coffin, and you’d be a lot closer to God’s green earth than you ever wanted to be.”
“Aye. Or else you’d be.”
Troy, thank you so much for being our guest today here at Petticoats and Pistols. We hope you’ll come back and join us again sometime! You’ve got a lot of wonderful work out there and some beautiful covers, for sure!
Hi Troy! Welcome to Petticoats & Pistols. Westerns, drama and romance are such a perfect fit. What you said about dreams in the excerpt from “Caleb’s Price” is so true. Dream on!
Hi Troy!
So good to have you with us here at Petticoats and Pistols today. You know I’m a big fan of your writing, and I sure enjoyed your answers to the interview questions–especially your advice to new writers about trying to write and read poetry as much as possible. I never really thought about it, but I guess my absolute LOVE of poetry, both reading it and writing it, helped me with my novel and short story writing as well–that is an excellent point you make. You have got some GORGEOUS covers! I’ve read several of the books and short stories shown here and have never been disappointed. So glad you are with us today!
Cheryl
Hi Troy,
I’m so glad Cheryl invited you to Petticoats and Pistols. The excerpt from CALEB’S PRICE definitely has me intrigued, as do the covers and titles of the other books shown in the blog.
Thank you for your advice to those of us still working to become “overnight successes.”
Kirsten
Congratulations on your writing career. Your talent and success is due to your perseverance. Calen’s Price sounds compelling and wonderful. best wishes and continued good writing.
Troy, I should have asked you this because inquiring minds want to know (or at least, mine does)LOL
Could you name some of your favorite books and authors that inspired you to write your own? I’d love to know, as a kid, what got you thinking about writing a book and kept you interested in it as you got older?
Cheryl
Hi Troy, thank you for visiting today. I read your except and I’m hooked! I hope the guy who likens women to sheep gets his comeuppence–or at least has to eat his words!
Hi Troy, great post. I especially like your answer to what makes a great story -so true that it takes a great, relateable conflict. The excerpt was great as well.
Good morning, Troy–I’m another Western Historical Romance author,and my shorts are with Rebecca, too. I agree with your opinion of her–just wonderful.
When I took early retirement, and before I even discovered romance books, I read one genre at a time–first science fiction, until I tired of it, and then I switched to Westerns–not romance–just true westerns. My lord, I don’t know how many I read and how many authors, but of course Louise Lamour.
That’s why I write Western romance now…I just have to have a little love story. I enjoyed you post very much…
Troy, welcome to P&P. We’re so happy to have you blog with us. You have some great covers. I especially like Riding to Sundown. And that excerpt really sparked my interest. I’m going to have to put you on my list to read. I like your hero Caleb. He’s tough but underneath very sensitive. I like reading about men like that.
Best wishes to you in your career!
Hi Troy,
I enjoyed your post and learning a little more about you. I read your story The Windigo. I have to say, I love a little paranormal with my stories. lol
You did a wonderful job with the legend of the Windigo. Then add the suspense and horror… heck, it was just an all around good story.
I enjoyed the excerpt of Caleb’s Price. I hope the guy who compares women to sheep gets what he deserves–even if it’s only a good smack in the head. lol
I wish you the best!
Thank you all for the wonderful warm welcome! I am very impressed with this website. And of course I know several of the regulars, and needless to say I am continually impressed by them as well!
I especially appreciate the kind words from Cheryl, Karen, and Celia, all of whose work I know and admire.
Linda- I have been blessed to have some great cover artists to work with. It makes a world of difference.
Linda- yes, Caleb is definitely tough and sensitive at the same time… and is not afraid to show either, when the situation calls for it. You know, this book was very important to me on a personal level, and I didn’t realize why until after I had written it. In a way, I had a childhood similar to Joey’s (though not as dramatic)… with an emotionally distant mother, an absent father, and an abrasive (though generally well-meaning) step-father, and like Joey I yearned for someone to come along and set my world straight. I realized after the book was finished that Joey was like a child version of me, and that Caleb was like an adult version- revisiting the child, with an adult’s perspective, and giving him comfort. Maybe that’s why the characters came alive and altered my writerly plans for them, because they were elements of my own subconscious working out my childhood abandonment issues. And the weird thing is, once the novel was finished, a lot of my lost feelings felt resolved. Writing is funny that way.
Cheryl-
There are a lot of writers/books I loved as a kid, and all of them shaped me in one way or another. I loved Tolkien (especially THE SILMARILLION… because I was a budding historian even then, I guess, and liked the history of Middle Earth even more than the adventures offically set there), Edgar Rice Burroughs (the John Carter stories slightly more than the Tarzan ones), Mark Twain (especially Huckleberry Finn), and Robert E. Howard (not just his fantasy, like Conan, but also his historical stuff and horror stories.) I loved Poe, as well. And KING SOLOMON’S MINES, by H. Rider Haggard… and Arthur Conan Doyle, and Bram Stoker… and Dashiell Hammett (especially THE DAIN CURSE)…And yes, Louis L’Amour… although the book I read as a child which stuck with me the most was the western BOWIE’S MINE, by the great Elmer Kelton. Another was SHOGUN by James Clavell and CENTENNIAL by James Michener- I bet I’ve read each of those a dozen times.
As a teen and into my 20s I loved Stephen Crane (especially his poetry), Hemingway, Steinbeck, and Faulkner, and Tennessee Williams and Eugene O’Neill… and Cormac MacCarthy, when I discovered him. And…(and Cheryl and I have discussed this one more than once!)… LONESOME DOVE, which may be my favorite novel of all time. I love the way McMurtry uses humor to help you get to know the characters, and lower your guard, and then BAM! Tragedy and carnage! I especially identify with Gus MacRae… a Tennessean who is both competent (when he wants to be) and passionate… romantic, philosphical, poetic, and (unlike his partner) very much in touch with his feelings. (Other characters I identify with closely, by the way, are Paladin from HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL and Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy from Start Trek.)
“Start Trek?” Make that Star Trek, lol
Troy, You sure know how to write pithy dialogue. I got awful mad at Bert and the way he talked about his wife. Glad I remembered Caleb is the person I need to empathize with. Congratulations on such a prolific career.
Maggie Toussaint, a Georgia peach
Although I guess you can’t really make any Trek unless you Start it. Ba-dum-bum.
BUT… all those books and authors aside… there is one writer whom I believe was a huge influence on me early on, shaping my apporach as a writer and in some ways even helping shape me as a human being. That would be Stan Lee, comic book legend and creator of Spider-man, the Hulk, Thor, the X-men, the Fantastic Four, and a hundred more. I learned to read on his work.
What was different about him from all the “super-hero” creators who came before was the fact that his characters actually WERE characters, not just blank ciphers in costumes. They had real problems, real personalitites, and real failings… and the bad guys weren’t just evil for evil’s sake, they had motivations, sometimes even some good qualities (at times you even felt sorry for them, maybe even rooting for them, like you do Wile E. Coyote in the Roadrunner cartoons). Plus there was always a strong (and often complex) moral to the story. (“With great power comes great responsibility.”) You weren’t inspired so much by the hero’s strength or ability, as by their moral courage in overcoming their own weaknesses, which you just never saw in a comic book before Stan. I had a pretty lonely childhood, few friends and little adult guidance (I had an older cousin I worshipped, but he was killed in an accident when I was 10.) So I learned a lot from those Stan Lee characters. Peter Parker/Spider-man was pretty neurotic, always full of doubts, but he did the right thing even when it hurt. Tony Stark/Iron Man seemed arrogant, but was a secret alcoholic with a possibly terminal heart disease… his struggles with those things was more dramatic than any villain.
So from Stan I learned, to be a good storyteller, make your characters as human as possible. Give them weaknesses which they must genuinely struggle against. And have an over-arching point, a moral if you will. (I learned similar lessons from other characters as well… Atticus Finch in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, Rick Blaine in CASABLANCA, George Bailey in IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, and Will Kane from HIGH NOON.)
The highlight of my professional life was, in the late 90s, meeting my childhood (and adulthood!) idol, Stan Lee, in person… and then conducting a series of telephone interviews with him for an article about his Western comics. That was awesome… because yes, I AM a geeky fanboy. 🙂
Troy, so nice to get to know you better. I have loved westerns all my life. My dad started my love for history with tales about his family and their move from Georgia to Texas. Then I listened to my great uncle and my grandmother discuss peopel they’d known in Tennessee before they migrated to Oklahoma. I’m still fascinated with history, but especailly western hsitory. All of my books except for one novella are set primarily in Texas. And I loved poetry and had no idea it was beneficial to my prose, but I see your point. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Maggie! The real trick is, can I get the reader to feel at least a little sympathy for a jerk like Bert by the end of the story?
Troy,
I am a HUGE Star Trek (original cast) fan, and if I’m not mistaken I believe Maggie might be, too…Of course, I was in love with Capt. Kirk–hey I was like 12 when it was in it’s heyday–but really the interaction among the crew was what kept me interested all along. As for the books…I knew you would say Lonesome Dove. OK, just shoot me now. LOL That’s what makes America so great–we aren’t all lined up at B&N for the same book. Now, I’m going to have to get a copy of King Solomon’s Mines–that just sounds too “different” not to read. Somewhere recently, someone mentioned that they’re making a movie of the John Carter character from Burroughs’ stories.
You have a varied and impressive assortment of favorites in your reading, Troy–you must have been like some of us here as children–we’ve talked before about reading being a favorite pasttime “back then.” LOL
Cheryl
Yes, there is a John Carter movie due out soon. I have the same feeling about that which I had over a decade ago at news they were making a live action Lord of the Rings movie- I was both excited and very scared that it would be screwed up. The LOTR movies far exceeded my expactations… we’ll see about this one. Unfortunately, ALL the Conan movies (fun as Ah-nold can be!) totally molded the general public’s view of the character for the worse- the movies just haven’t come close to captuing the essence of the character, who is a lot more complex than he is on the screen. And George Lucas’s Howard the Duck movie took a comic book character who was unique, funny, subversive, cerebral, and counter-cultural and turned it into a national laughingstock forever.
I do tend to rant 🙂
Speaking of Robert E. Howard and Conan, have any of you folks seen the Howard biopic / romantic drama THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD, starring Vincent d’Onofrio and Renee Zellweger? That’s one of my favorite movies.
I am also a huge Star Trek nerd… I believe what made the original series work so well was the chemistry between the three leads. Kirk was the body, Spock was the brain, and Mccoy was the heart- and they all needed each other.
Hey, Troy,
That’s how my husband felt about the Dune movie. He was really disappointed because he was such a fan of the books, and there’s just no way to cram all that into a movie. I haven’t seen THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD, but I really enjoy Vincent d’Onofrio’s acting, so I’ll have to look it up now.
I predict you’ll love it. In my opinion, that movie comes the closest to portraying what it feels like to be a writer.
Enjoyed reading the comments.
My question is Do you visit the western states for hands-on scenery, people and places you write about in your books?
I live in Arizona and have visited all of the major things to see where history occurred here-Tombstone, the Apache reservation, Picacho Peak and Zane Grey’s cabin on the Mogollon Rim.
I read a lot of westerns so will add this one to my TBR list.
Hi Troy nice to meet you. I am sorry to say I have not read your work before but will check it out. I love a good western and the excerpt left me wanting more. I would like to know if you ever use things that happen to you in real life in your books?
Joye,
I’m from Tennessee and for most of my writing career I was either working as a janitor or a grad student, and couldn’t afford the gas to travel as much as I’d like- shoot, I couldn’t even afford to go west to pick up my Spur Award when I won it. That has changed somewhat in the last few years, and I spent several months in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas doing nothing BUT research… but I still haven’t visited the spots farther west. Now that I’m a professor and Native American history scholar I expect I’ll be getting out there on a fairly regular basis for conferences and etc. But for the first part of my career, I’ve had to rely on books and Nat-Geo for my physical orientation! 🙂
Quilt Lady-
I sure do. I’m not the sort to write diaries or journals… but there are little pieces of my life throughout my fiction. I imagine that’s true with most writers. It’s just disguised as someone else’s life! I have found that the works I have done that have drawn the most from my own life and experiences, disguised though they might be, end up being the ones that come alive the most for readers.
Hi Troy. Great blog. Thanks so much for being on.
Thanks Mary- I have been made to feel very welcome!
After I read your blog, where you’ve been and where you are right now, I sat back in awe of your accomplishments. I see you’ve really been around the block a time or two, Troy. I cannot imagine how it would feel to be locked up in Walmart for twleve hours over night. Good to know you put your time to good use.
It’s such a shame that some great magazines no longer exist. I’m glad you were able to have your stories published in Louis L’Amour’s Magazine before it stopped its presses. I think that’s amazing.
I was so happy to hear your good words about Western Trail Blazers. As a new author to that line, I was glad to hear that you called it home.
Loved your excerpt. Not likein’ Burt a whole lot after his comment to Caleb about women being like sheep. LOL
Loved your blog, Troy. I wish you the very best.
Thanks, Sarah. And you’ll be glad you hitched your wagon to Rebecca’s star… it may start out slow, but you’ll see your sales grow month by month. That’s a quality outfit.
And it was tragic that the Louis L’Amour magazine folded- ha, I hope it didn’t have anything to do with me! There were several magnificent short stories published there- including standouts like “Are You Coming Back, Phin Montana?” by Jane Candia Coleman and “The Art of Dipping Candlewax” by Judy Alter (if I remember correctly)..two of the best short stories I’ve read in any genre, anywhere -and stuff from then up-and-coming newbys like myself, Sandy Whiting, and Johnny Boggs. At one point in the late 90s the mag’s editor Elana Lore was trying to collect several of the stories that had appeared in it with central female characters, including “Mourning Glory,” for an anthology, but I never heard anything more about it (anthologies were becoming a hard sell in those pre-kindle days.) I wonder what she’s up to now? Maybe it’s time to revisit that idea!
You can often find used issues of the old Louis L’Amour mag for pretty cheap on amazon- it’s worth the price, they had a lot of great stories in ’em.
OK, Troy, that gives me an idea to go searching for these magazines. I had no idea you could find those on Amazon! And you know, you are so right about Star Trek–I remember now that Sarah is a big fan of Star Trek, too–about Kirk being the body, Spock the brains and McCoy the heart of the group–and the entire show. Gene Roddenberry was a genius to come up with that concept–really ahead of his time.
Cheryl
Have not read any of your books but am looking forward to doing so.
kissinoak at frontier dot com
Thanks Estella!
Hey, Troy, Alabama gal here. I have been reading your Blackwell books and really enjoy them. After reading the excerpt from your latest, I am putting it on my “must read” list.
I’m glad you’ve been enjoying the Blackwell stories!
Welcome to the Junction, Troy. Love the covers and excerpt. Looks like I’ve got some mighty fine reading to do! Best wishes.
Thanks, Tanya 🙂
What a great post!!! I am totally into western fiction and shall be looking for these books!
Troy, thank you for dropping by Wildflower Junction and visiting with us Fillies and our readers. I apologize for being so late checking in, but thoroughly enjoyed every bit of your interview. You mentioned a couple of my favorite western writers. I have two of Jory Sherman’s books in my TBR stack at the moment. My sister who writes also picked them up a garage sell, so they’re being recycled. Again thanks for visiting with us. Hugs from Texas, Phyliss
I’ve been having a blast!
Troy, I’m late to the party, but so glad you joined us here at The Junction. I’ll raise my hand as a Trek fan. I think you are spot on about the Kirk-Spock-Bones trio. And I really enjoyed Silmarillion, too.
I want to thank you all for making me feel so comfortable and welcome. I’ve enjoyed my visit with you very much.
Troy, thanks again so much for being with us today. We hope you’ll come back sometime in the not-too-distant future!
Cheryl
Late to the party today, but enjoyed your interview and the comments. We now live in NE TN and were surprised to find at least one Western and historical fiction writer in the area. His, Cameron Judd, books cover this area when it was “the western frontier” then moved on to the regular westerns.
I like the sound of CALEB’S PRICE. People and situations in life aren’t always what they seem, so why should they necessarily be predictable in fiction. Mix things up and keep the action going.
I hope you do make it out West soon. We were lucky enough to live in Colorado for three years. The area has a character and feel all its own. Don’t miss places like Mesa Verde National Park and the many other wonderful parks out there. If you can manage it, attend the Mountain Man Rendezvous at Fort Bridger, Wyoming (I think). You get a very good feel for the time period. Great place to observe outfits and gear. If you read some of the past Filly blogs, there are some wonderful ideas for sites to visit.
I hope sales of CALEB’S PRICE are going well.
Cameron is a great guy. We both went to Tennessee Tech, though not at the same time. His excellent series about East TN during the Civil War, I hear, will finally be coming to ebook soon.
I might point out that my own Brothers in Arms and Good Rebel Soil are set in TN 🙂